In the immediate aftermath of the now-infamous Court Street public sex act that caught the attention of the international media last year, five other rapes and sexual assaults were reported to authorities during the two months to follow.
However, none of these cases went before a grand jury, officials indicated. Each one is either pending investigation or closed unless the victim requests for the case to be reopened, according to reports from the Athens Police Department.
Of the five reports filed with APD between Oct. 14 — two days after the Oct. 12 incident in front of Chase, 2 S. Court St., took place — and Dec. 2, two are known to have involved students likely attending Ohio University.
Another one seems highly likely to have been an OU student based on the location it was reported from: Mill Street.
While four of these reports were filed within two weeks of the alleged rape on Court Street occurring, Lt. Jeff McCall doesn’t believe it was the reason for the increased amount of complaints.
McCall instead pointed to special events, such as Homecoming or Halloween.
“There’s a large crowd, the atmosphere is drinking alcoholic beverages and stuff unfortunately does happen,” McCall said, as two of the reports stemmed from incidents that occurred on Homecoming Weekend while two others were reported in the aftermath of the city’s annual Halloween block party.
APD Chief Tom Pyle said fewer than one in 10 reported rapes and sexual assaults involve charges being formally pressed.
“A lot of times it’s ‘he said, she said,’ crimes,” Pyle said.
Many times, there is the absence of physical evidence and in other scenarios, victims are reluctant to follow through with charges and cooperate with the investigation for personal reasons, he added.
“And so, you get all those things working against a successful investigation and it drops the ratio down considerably,” Pyle said.
He said he’s not aware of any other specific crime that has as low of a success rate in terms of being resolved, and that other crimes that are similarly difficult to solve include burglaries, thefts and kidnappings.
Susanne Dietzel, director of the OU Women’s Center, said a major problem with prosecuting rapes is that many in the general public have an unrealistic and narrow view of what rape is: A scenario when a stranger jumps out of the bushes and violently attacks a woman.
“That is not the way most sexual assaults happen in our country,” Dietzel said.
She added that she believes Pyle has his heart in the right place when it comes to the issue of rape and sexual assault.
“He is interested in being a part of the solution,” Dietzel said. “But, I think sometimes his hands are perhaps tied by the system, and by the lack of understanding of what sexual assault is all about in the general public. We need to educate both men and women about the importance of checking in with someone, not taking advantage of them.”
@AKARL_SMITH
AS299810@ohiou.edu
